Tuesday, March 8, 2011

What may have happened...

There have been a few criticisms following Obama's meeting with Calderon, as well as the latter's comments about Ambassador Carlos Pascual (including from myself). I talked to a former diplomat about it, and although he never worked in Mexico, he explained that what likely occurred is the following: Calderon phoned Pascual shortly before his interview with El Universal, warning him that he would be saying some things in order to pander to the public and address the Wikileaks cables. Pascual would not acknowledge any of this publicly, yet would be reassured by his president that all was fine.

Then when Calderon and Obama met, they could get down to real business and not worry about the Mexican president losing any face. Which he didn't, Obama and Calderon made progress on the trucking issue, and Calderon went home happy with America again.

1 comment:

Sounds plausible, but it seems like following the interview there was a genuine attempt to get rid of him, which would seem to go beyond the threshold of mere pandering. Plus there have ben reports in Bajo Reserva that no one in SRE nor in Los Pinos has much contact with Pascual. But maybe it all was an elaborate put-on for public consumption.

About Me

I'm a 39-year-old freelance journalist/author, until recently based in Mexico City. I've written for Newsweek (with whom I was an editor from 2000 to 2007) Slate.com, Foreign Policy, Jane's Intelligence Weekly, FDI magazine, the Sunday Times, World Politics Review, Soldier of Fortune, The News (Mexico City), The Sun, Nogales International and the Haitian Times. I've written two books on Mexico's drug war, "The Last Narco," published September 2010, and "Hasta El Ultimo Dia," published in March 2012. I hold a Master's Degree in War Studies from the University of Glasgow.
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